On Presidents Day, before dashing for holiday markdowns at the mall, we may even rest a beat to reflect on our history.

But if the story of your particular diversity is told in Southern accents -- especially if it dares breathe a word about historic roots stretching back to the Confederacy -- you're more apt to get a slug than a hug.

Marjorie Reeves knows that from personal, painful experience.

The Alabama transplant wasn't all that "Southern," she says, before moving to Seattle in 1998. But the minute she opened her mouth, releasing a soft, subtle Southern cadence, the response was like a slap in the face.

Soon after she arrived, a man on the street asked for directions. Politely she explained she was new in town (Reeves is a woman who always says ma'am and sir). Instantly and obscenely, the man cussed her out.

More times than she'd care to remember, she's been called a "foreigner" and asked, "What country are you from, anyway?"

So, while it was sickening, it didn't come as a complete shock when Reeves got a call a week ago from Lakeview Cemetery near Volunteer Park telling her that the 80-year-old Confederate Memorial on the site -- the one commemorating Washington state's Confederate veterans and their wives -- had been hack-sawed and vandalized, its bronze art pieces carted away.

The reason the cemetery manager called her is that Reeves is president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee Chapter 885, Seattle, Washington.

Those roots weren't really an interest of hers until after her move to Washington put her on the defensive. Soon she'd traced her ties back to great-great-grandfather James William Reeves. As a 15-year-old orphan he had joined the 65th K Company in Alabama only to be captured and sent to a prison camp near Chicago.

He spent the rest of his life in and out of mental institutions as a result.

Her great-great-grandfather on her mother's side, Harrison Milliner, was drafted into the militia in 1864.

It must have taken considerable effort and planning to deface the memorial honoring the Washington confederates of Reeve's forebears. The cross of honor at its top was 14 feet from the ground, so someone brought a ladder. The disk of Robert E. Lee's head with crossed rifles was sunk deeply into granite from Stone Mountain, Ga., which arrived here by steamship through the Panama Canal. So was the bronze flag of the Confederacy. No, not the controversial stars and bars battle flag. So someone must have brought tools.

Whatever work it took to destroy was nothing compared with the work and care required to build it.

The first money for the burial plot and memorial was raised at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition here in 1910. In 1911, the plot was bought. In 1922, members donated money for the monument. And on April 11, 1926, as the Temple Chorus sang, Seattle and Tacoma mayors and other dignitaries, including Scott Bullitt of the pioneer Bullitt family and American Legion vets, were on hand to speechify and salute.

They were there to honor bravery. To note the reality of the scar that split this nation, and to celebrate what Seattle Mayor Edwin J. Brown called an event that "cemented America forever."

The attack on the monument was not the first time that cement -- or stone -- has been reviled or removed.

In 2002, a state representative mounted a campaign to remove a small 63-year-old marker in Blaine designating Highway 99 as the Jefferson Davis Highway, calling the first and only president of the Confederacy "a traitor." The matching marker at the other end of the highway in Vancouver, Wash., has been hidden in a shed ever since.

Reeves repeatedly traveled to Vancouver to get the marker reseated, only to be called names, ignored by officials and insulted by members of the media.

Now this.

"To me, it's about local history," Reeves told me. "It's about the people -- some of them from the South -- who lived and died here and helped to build this state."

She's praying that someone will help return the bronze artwork. It isn't worth much of anything on the open market. But it's worth more than its weight as a tribute to a part of our complex diversity that she believes it is high time we get our arms around.

The Alabama transplant wasn't all that "Southern," she says, before moving to Seattle in 1998. But the minute she opened her mouth, releasing a soft, subtle Southern cadence, the response was like a slap in the face.

Soon after she arrived, a man on the street asked for directions. Politely she explained she was new in town (Reeves is a woman who always says ma'am and sir). Instantly and obscenely, the man cussed her out.

More times than she'd care to remember, she's been called a "foreigner" and asked, "What country are you from, anyway?"

Great to see how enlightened and tolerant liberal Seattle is. /sarcasm

I'm from Georgia. I was stationed as an Army recruiter up in Washington state. Lots of the "tolerant" folk there didn't like the fact that I was in the Army. Others asked me what country I was from as well. When I told one I was from Georgia, a state before Washington was even a territory, I was accused of being a racist. Ah, the "tolerance."

10
posted on 02/21/2005 8:35:22 AM PST
by joedelta
(Those who long for peace must prepare for war)

Liberals are the most intolerant people I know. My brother is a liberal and he acts like a Nazi when it comes to views that are different from the twisted leftist dogma he learned in college. God, Christians, Jews, conservatives, southerners and smokers rank highest on his hate list. I pray often for his deliverance.

12
posted on 02/21/2005 8:44:49 AM PST
by AF68
(A political party that engages in vote fraud won't hesitate to steal all of your rights.)

"When I told one I was from Georgia, a state before Washington was even a territory, I was accused of being a racist. Ah, the "tolerance.""

My Navy days in New England were similar. When asked where I was from, I would say, "Mississippi". The next question was almost always, "Are you a racist"?, flat out. Then there was the ever-common, "But you are so well spoken". As if I couldn't be from Mississippi because I spoke comprehensible English.

No, it's not only in Seattle. There is something that conservatives need to understand about leftists who prattle on about "embracing differences" and "celebrating diversity": All such talk is merely a smokescreen. The real agenda of the left is nothing short of genocidal - to completely eradicate and destroy traditional Western civilization, the faith it is rooted in (Christianity), and the ethnic groups who make up its tradtional majority population (people of European heritage).

The oppressors must be eliminated in order for the free and equal supermen (new Soviet man, the Aryan über-race (a race that never actually existed), the new face of America, the New World Order, etc.), to emerge and rule the universe. That is why they have openly sided with Islam in its jihad upon the West.

The overwhelming majority of Confederate soldiers were fighting for their homes and families - not to preserve slavery. While I don't agree with the assertions of neo-confederates that the Southern states had every right to secede, the fact remains that the fallen soldiers from the confederacy died for this country just as the fallen bluecoats did. They deserve the respect and honor that all fallen veterans are due.

"This place is so mellow that I couldn't conceive of people getting their shorts in a wad over something like this."

Baloney. Carry a Bush sign in Westlake Center and you will be threatened with death every 15 minutes. I guarantee it. You will be flipped off every single minute, spat at every 5 minutes, hollered at without end for the entire time.

Seattlites have their shorts in a wad about absolutely everything.

Only those who agree perfectly with the liberal / left line perceive mellowness from them.

When I was a kid we had a family from California move down the street from us. They had 2 sons close to me and my friends age. They really wanted to fit in so we kidded them by telling them that they had to lead to walk bear footed and talk with a Southern draw before we would allow them to join us. He, He.

26
posted on 02/21/2005 9:23:06 AM PST
by reagandemo
(The battle is near are you ready for the sacrifice?)

e real agenda of the left is nothing short of genocidal - to completely eradicate and destroy traditional Western civilization, the faith it is rooted in (Christianity), and the ethnic groups who make up its tradtional majority population (people of European heritage).

Remember that the overwhelming majority of leftists in this country are white and of "Euro-peon" heritage. I've never felt any sort of political harassment among black, Asian, or Latino neighbors and coworkers in my life. Its always come from obnoxious fellow pale faces.

BTW: I prefer "American Civilization" to distinguish our great country and our unique cultural history as apart from the decadent hellhole that is Europe, with its history of slavish devotion to popes and monarchs, deference to traditional authority, and embrace of "isms" as governing philosophy.

The creation of the Washington Territory was spearheaded by Jefferson Davis when he was Secretary of War in the Pierce Administration.

Pierce County was named after Franklin Pierce, and King County after William Rufus DeVane King, who was a senator from Alabama and ended up as Buchanan's VP. (King was also as openly gay as one could be in that time.)

This state owes a lot to southern gentlemen.

28
posted on 02/21/2005 9:27:26 AM PST
by Publius
(The people of a democracy choose the government they want, and they ought to get it good and hard.)

The people who would do something this despicable must really hate America and Americans. Whatever the issues in 1860-61, that led to the separation, traditional America, both North and South had healed that division by early in the 20th Century. Those who have suddenly succeeded in stirring it up again, have no love for America.

On the eve of the birth of the noble Virginian, who did more than any other man to secure the independence of these States, it is a fit time to dedicate ourselves to identify and expose those mongers of hate, who have created a climate where this sort of cultural atrocity can take place. It is well to remember, also, that Robert E. Lee was the son of one of Washington's most celebrated Lieutenants.

Leftists rule Europe. They are deliberately setting up the enslavement of their own people at the hands of the Muslims. Leftists here (whether they call themselves Republicans or Democrats) share the same nihilistic goal. Europe is indeed a decadent hellhole, but we aren't really that much far behind. As far as the racial aspect of the issue is concerned, those minority individuals who have embraced Western civilzation and culture are, if anything, even more demonized than white conservatives. Just read some of the hate mail received by Michelle Malkin, by way of example.

47-48% of the electorate voted for a complete traitor for president last November, and the left remains in control of most major institutions. They've been chiseling away at the constitution for the last 70 years, and there appears to be little if any serious effort to fight and resist their agenda. Leftist dogmas on topics ranging from feminism to the homosexualist agenda are routinely embraced by Republicans - not to mention Democrats, who are the party of the left.

The curious thing about leftism lies in its essentially parasitical nature, and the fact that it is largely embraced by native westerners. The thugocracy ruling China, for example, while ostensibly communist - is nonetheless quite nationalistic in most respects. Chairman Mao's attempt to destroy traditional Chinese culture failed - miserably. The gang in charge now resembles the warlords of an earlier China more than anything else. There is no drive by Japan's ruling class to import millions of aliens for cheap labor and permanently replace Japanese culture with an Polynesian one, for example. Such a concept is unthinkable in Japan, but lauded on Wall Street.

Only westerners truly embrace the cultural suicide and nihilistic essence of leftism. There are opportunistic minorty agitators who are along for the ride, of course. The Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh was sort of the epitome of end-stage leftism: A nihilistic Euro who rejected his own heritage, culture and faith ends up pathetically begging the precious "other" he invited into his own native land for his life as the Jihadi plunges the knife into his chest. A culture of death.

Man, I think you are right on. You have summarized the situation as well as anything I have read. I am a little dense on one thing, however. What did you mean by "soviet man?" Did you mean this is supposed to be the ideal for all of us?

Thanks for your kind remarks. The "New Soviet Man" was the utopian being who was supposed to emerge triumphant when the work of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" (the liquidation of the counter-revolutionary element) was completed. It is one of the many variations on the endless theme (and ultimate lie) of leftism - the perfectability of man.

The Nazi (National Socialist Democratic Worker's Party) variation was the "Aryan." Mao similarly sought to create a Chinese version of the same utopian creature during the "Great Cultural Revolution" of the 1960s. It all stems from Hegel's model of the oppressed "übermenschen" (lit. superhumans) who could only emerge and take their rightful place as free and equal masters of utopia by eliminating the oppressor "untermenschen" (subhumans).

Despite the mountains of corpses and rivers of blood generated over the past two centuries (at least120 million according to Dr. Rummel's very authoritative "Death by Government" site) the left soldiers on relentlessly. "We just haven't tried the right variation yet, you see."

"Whatever the issues in 1860-61, that led to the separation, traditional America, both North and South had healed that division by early in the 20th Century. Those who have suddenly succeeded in stirring it up again, have no love for America.

Nicely put, but then all we of Southern descent want is the right to celebrate our heritage and honor our fallen without derision and epithets being flung at us. Also we want the truth to be taught to our children instead of lies. I too love this country, and served in her defense for 20 years on active duty. But I didn't serve so that PC could thrive and silence freedom. So you may be a Yankee but you sound like one who has some common sense. Join with the Sons of the South to fight this tyranny called PC.

Disgraceful! Now I understand why eastern Washington wants to separate from western Washington. Seattle is occupied by the liberal Taliban. If an earthquake or tsunami ever hits that area, it will leave us with mixed emotions.

This disgraces all who had ancestors in the Civil War, mine fought for the Union but they would of been appalled by this. Whatever the reason people fought in that war, and the causes were varied on both sides, they should be shown respect. It was the common blood of American, North, South and black men along with white, that soaked the earth at the many battlefields of the Civil War. It is the honor of the brave which is insulted.

That is beyond sad. Do they take the kids to the Highlander Folk School at Monteagle, where King studied Leftist tactics with some of the most notorious Fellow Travellers in the South in 1957 or 1958?

A now long departed, dear friend and next door neighbor of mine, growing up, helped to put together the exposure published in Georgia in 1958 on that interesting weekend--King there with all the White Leftists!

My tribute to General Washington, this year, will be posted at my web site as the Feature for March, this weekend. It is a debate between George Washington and George W. Bush on foreign policy. Stop by!

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